There is nothing in cinema quite like a good old-fashioned, complex love story. This is exactly what makes for such wondrous cinema in Pawel Pawlikowski’s latest offering Cold War.

We had the immense pleasure to sit down with the auteur – who was behind the Oscar winning Ida – as he explains where he took the inspiration from to craft this indelible love story. He speaks about the structure of the narrative and why he is allowing the audience to fill in the gaps, and what he believes to be the director’s number one criteria for making movies.

He discusses his enigmatic leading duo Tomasz Kot and Joanna Kulig, and whether he had to screen test them together beforehand to get a sense for their chemistry. He also comments on the film’s striking and classic Hollywood feel and how that plays against the bleak, Cold War aesthetic, and why he has reverted back to making films in Poland. Finally, we ask about what may be his next movie Limonov, and whether the casting process has begun yet for that title.

Watch the full interview here:

Synopsis

Set against the backdrop of the 1950s Cold War in Poland, two people of differing backgrounds and temperaments begin an almost impossible romance.

Cold War is out in cinemas now.